Christmas Movies I've got to watch

There are lots of movies I enjoy watching during the Christmas season, and sometimes I find a day I want Christmas in June and will watch them again, but I'm just realizing there are 5 that I must watch every Christmas season. And to be sure you don't forget to see them too, here's my list of top 5 movies:

5. Home Alone is just a nostalgic holiday movie. Kevin McCalister is married and divorced since this movie came out, but it's still terrific to remember him as a little kid. Also, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the bad guys are lots of fun in their bumbling travails. My brother and I could easily recite the entire movie given a few prompts. "Ma'am, I'm eight years old, do you think I'd be here, alone? I don't think so." He's such a great snotty, little kid.

4. I really like the Santa Clause series. In the first one he has to figure out how to become Santa after the previous Santa falls off his roof. It's very cute, and elaborates the story of Santa really well. In the second movie, he falls victim to "the Mrs. clause" and has to marry or he'll forfeit his right to be Santa. Luckily he finds Elizabeth Mitchell (from Lost) and they have fun getting to know each other in the short amount of time he has. The best part is the meeting of magical creatures, including Mother Earth, Father Time, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny.

3. This one is nearly always on TV right around Thanksgiving and plays a few times between then and Christmas. They sing some Christmas songs, and ultimately have to put on a pageant directed by Lucy. I love watching him find the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" which has even become a catchphrase for spindly trees.

2. How can you describe how perfectly Christmas It's a Wonderful Life can be? It symbolizes all that we forget each year, that we are part of a community, part of a family, and that no matter how insignificant you feel, you are important to someone. It's cheesy and always makes me cry, but it's such a part of all Christmas culture, that I really do think of it "every time a bell rings, an angel is getting his wings".

1. Of course the movie I cannot avoid watching every single Christmas and reciting as often as possible is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I actually have used lines from this movie and recognized a kindred spirit when they were parroted back at me from an unexpected source (B-mama, you must teach this movie to your kids someday!). It's a "ree-al, nice" movie to show with your family. One Christmas (so family lore goes) my grandparents were snowed in at my aunt's house and they put on this movie, and my grandparents laughed and laughed. It's really a movie for the whole family. It'll have you sh*tting bricks, sorry sh*ttin' rocks.

Honorable mentions: A Christmas Story (which lost out on the top 5 because it is on 24 times just Christmas EVE!!!), The Holiday, The Family Stone.